This infographic tells you all you need to know about BBC impartiality
Enough said?
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That’s because they are the biggest British party in the European Parliament. It’s called democracy. Viva BBC!! You know Europe, that drain on the British public purse i.e. money going into the pockets of fat cats; a situation and organisation which the Labour Party loves to love. Solution: let Labour campaign relentlessly and effectively for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and then you would get rid of those who represent your current obsession AND we would regain monies which could be far better used to support the sick and needy in Britain. The BIG 3 could then be charged with distributing our recovered largesse because UKIP would not be in power at Westminster. Simples. Question: if that situation came about who would YOU trust to help the sick and needy? Please don’t try and convince me because the BIG and BEST 3 in SW1 have screwed up on every occasion they’ve been asked to do just that. Wait: No, I know, lets give even more to India who can then build more rockets while THEIR residents live in abject poverty too. Sorted.
Guy, the vast majority of the statistics used by the creators of the infographic will relate to appearances before the 2014 European Parliament election, when UKIP was just another small group with bizarrely inconsistent voting habits – so it’s not democracy at all.
Mr Sivier, any idea on the number of times the SNP has made an appearance on Question Time? Given that they are (now) the third largest political party in the UK, one would expect at least a token appearance now and then…
They’re on it every time QT goes to Scotland; other than that I don’t think so. SNP supporters could lobby the BBC (I imagine), but you’ll have to expect the response that they’re a minority party, only concerned with Scotland. But then, isn’t UKIP a minority party mainly concerned with foreigners?
Sorry to labour the point but your graphic says “since 2010 ….as of October 2014” and in any case, they were the 2nd biggest British party in Europe before their resounding victory this year. Hardly ‘bizarre, inconsistent voting habits’. And unless you’ve failed to notice, the European Parliament is more relevant to what happens in Britain today than Westminster. Of course, their appearances on Question Time are balanced by the supporters of the other (main) parties being bussed-in by the BBC to sit in the audience. But Mike, I’m not sure why you are so perturbed about these figures if indeed they are correct; UKIP have only got one measly MP in Westminster so there can’t possibly be any reason for any British voter to ‘worry’. Can there?
My comment still stands – QT was off-air for much of the summer and UKIP wasn’t represented on every show before the break and after the return (although I’m sure it had people on several). UKIP’s bizarre and inconsistent voting habits have nothing to do with the number of members they have in the European Parliament and everything to do with those members’ behaviour in it. If the European Parliament is so much more relevant to what happens in the UK, one would have reason to expect UKIP to take it more seriously.
I’ve noticed the appearances of ‘plants’ in the QT audience but I don’t think it’s the BBC that has been bussing them in. That would be the political parties themselves. I notice UKIP has had particularly vociferous representations from the audience recently.
As for being perturbed about the figures – if UKIP only has one MP in Westminster, and remains a tiny minority in the European Parliament, even though it did do very well for itself (but didn’t win – more MEPs were elected from the other parties), then the amount of representation it gets is utterly disproportionate to its influence. The fact it receives this disproportionate attention then feeds through to the viewer who draws a wrong conclusion that UKIP is far more popular than it actually is, and then voting patterns start to go strange.